Battle of Meio
The Battle of Meio was a large space battle fought over Meio, in the Pel's Aurora Region between the Empire of Triterra and a coalition led by The Free Systems. Maxim Harvey sought to force the colony to re-join the Empire’s sphere of influence, as before at Psi Olympia and Iota Zulu, and the Meyove offered fierce resistance and were soon assisted by their allies, The Free Systems. It bled over into the Siege of Awugheswt, which encompassed the ground campaign fought on Meio’s surface. Background During the initial settlement of the Region, Tritach originally controlled one of its quadrants, having under it the colonies of Psi Olympia, Iota Zulu, and Meio, with its own headquarters being at Euerythro. After several battles between the Mega-conglomerates controlling the region, its regional influence collapsed however, and the colonies came under Innovaganix control. But this was not to last, for only a few months later, Innovaganix’ regional power itself collapsed, with most local assets being sold at loss to Southbreak Financial & Medical Securities. At the same time, Maxim Harvey, the erstwhile RCEO of Tritach, declared himself independent of their influence and created the so-called Empire of Triterra based out of Euerythro. Within two months, Triterran fleets had appeared at both Psi Olympia and Iota Zulu, delivering demands for surrender. It was clear to Meio that this would be the next target, and so allies were called and preparations were made. Opposing Sides Initially, only Meyove assets were present at Meio, as the coalition could not reach the planet before Triterran forces. This meant there were no Warships initially available, but the gigantic Halom Cannon in the city of Awugheswt served as orbital defence. The Coalition relief forces brought the largest Astrofleet ever assembled in Pel’s Aurora into the system, consisting of over 40 Warships. Melina Luther commanded the Astrofleet, with Warlord Meri Gaiko as second in command The Empire of Triterra sent a strong task force consisting of over 30 ships to Meio, with Maxim Harvey personally commanding his Astrofleet. The Colony of Psi Olympia sent a single ship. It was unknown initially for which side they would be fighting, but eventually they sided with coalition forces. Lead up The Coalition knew that they would be arriving behind Triterra, and thus took pains to ensure that they all would arrive at Meio at the same time. Some elements arrived several days too early, but were able to conceal themselves from the Triterran fleet until the arrival of the remainder. They also knew they would likely have to land troops on the planet to help the beleaguered defenders. The Psi Olympians arrived several days ahead of the Triterrans, and approached the Meyove, offering to fight alongside them. This offer was accepted with some suspicion, as Psi Olympia had recently come under Triterran domination. Triterra landed its ground forces and began the Siege of Awugheswt, which would last for several weeks. The Battle in space, however, was less prolonged. Battle Excepting the early arrival of Captain-General Séan Ari Cauthon on the 9th, whose ships arrived early and began to scout out the situation, the relief forces arrived in two main groups. The first was a flotilla of around 15 ships, which arrived a day earlier than had been planned. Harvey’s Astrofleet detected their distortion wave, but initially paid them no further mind, being secure in the superiority of their own forces. The second group consisted of the remaining starships, around 30, which arrived on the 17th. For unknown reasons, however, this rather large collection of vessels was registered on Triterran scanners as only a single ship – Melina Luther’s Lightsbane, which immediately rendezvoused with the earlier Flotilla, while Meri Gaiko led the remaining ships into an ambush position behind one of the system’s planets. As soon as the Lightsbane had met the first flotilla, they moved towards the Triterran fleet and opened fire at excessively long ranges of several light minutes. The Triterrans were at first unworried by this, thinking that it would be all but impossible to accurately hit, let alone cause significant damage at this range, but soon it became apparent that somehow, the flagship was receiving several hull penetrations, presumably from concentrated laser fire. Incensed, Harvey ordered the entire fleet to immediately mobilize and attack the small group of foes, still unaware that there were more hostile ships in the system, sending a disdainful transmission threatening their death, and confident of victory. Rushing headlong towards the first flotilla, Triterra’s Astrofleet was completely blindsided by the second flotilla’s flanking attack, which lanced out from behind the planet they had concealed themselves behind as soon as the Triterran fleet passed, throwing their foes into wild disarray as they attempted to re-position themselves to meet this new threat, which itself was the signal for Luther’s group to advance on Harvey’s ships. The Triterran starships were, however, unable to do this by the time the three elements had closed to more traditional ranges. The second flotilla, led by an extremely advanced Battlecruiser, opened up on the Triterran ships with a daunting array of lasers, coil cannons, and drones, and a gigantic salvo of missiles. The Coalition’s drones were vastly superior to the Triterrans’ in both number and quality, beating them back and allowing the missile salvo to go forward almost uncontested. Harvey ordered his fleet to retreat to a closer orbit of Meio, and all the while his three capital ships focused their fire on the single enemy Battlecruiser, even firing an Antimatter missile, which however was neutralized by a blink displacer. The Coalition Battlecruiser was heavily bruised, but itself dealt punishing blows to each of its assailants, with the help of its cutter escorts screening against drone and coil attacks. At this point, there was a brief moment of confusion among the Coalition Astrofleet, as one of the Warlords accompanying the relief force turned his guns and drones on the Hierarchy's flagship, the Absolution, and sent boarders to attack it. The Warlord claimed that the Hierarchy had been scamming them for several turns, and promised that no action would be taken against the remainder of the Coalition fleet. For the most part, the other commanders simply continued focusing on the Triterrans, but did send reinforcing Espatiers to the Absolution. The Absolution, meanwhile, defended itself from the attack after recovering from the surprise and confusion, and proved to be the vastly superior ship, causing the Warlord to withdraw and leave the system for parts unknown. Meanwhile, the battle raged on, and between the opposing sides, the fierce drone battle resulted in the Triterran drones being destroyed or chased back to their own fleet, and thus the missiles and bombers were able to advance ever closer to the Triterran ships, beginning to cause ever more significant damage, especially to the capital ships. It was at this point that something unforeseen by any occurred. A massive energy spike was registered, and the already ailing Triterran flagship’s weapons and sensors were powered down completely or significantly reduced in effectiveness. Up to this point in the battle, the lone Olympian cutter had been following along with the Triterran flagship, keeping itself mostly uninvolved in the fighting. How Triterran fleet command was unaware that Olympian troops on the ground were fighting alongside the Meyove was unknown, but it can be assumed that the difficulty of communication and reduced visibility in Meio’s atmosphere contributed to this. In any case, the cutter’s crew prepared an enhanced EMP device and abandoned ship in drop pods shortly before it detonated. By no means decisive in itself, this act did however hamper the Dreadnought’s capability to defend itself from the incoming barrage of missiles, coil cannon rounds, drones, and the freshly launched boarding pods, and these began to successively crash into the Triterran ships, causing havoc. It was at this point that Maxim abandoned his ship and fled to the surface in an escape pod. Several Coalition Drones were close to stopping this, but were forced to scatter by the reactivating Triterran point defence, allowing him to escape, though it was uncertain whether he would survive re-entering Meio’s atmosphere, or the hostile conditions on the ground. It was argued later that the Olympian EMP helped in Harvey’s escape, convincing him of the need to abandon the ship, but this is disputed. The cowardly flight of their so-called Emperor, however, led to the crews of first the Dreadnought, and soon the other ships, to beg to be allowed to surrender. The Coalition’s commanders accepted this surrender and did what they could to redirect remaining missiles and drones, but warned the crews of the ships that coil cannon rounds were still incoming, and advised them to brace for impact. The Coalition dispatched boarders to each of the remaining Triterran ships, meeting mostly cooperative crews, and though the two Battlecruisers had significant Espatier complements, both only gave token resistance before also surrendering. With this, the Coalition had won a major victory over the Triterran forces in space, but the battle was not done, and so the troop transports immediately began landing operations. Aftermath With Triterra's primary astrofleet completely destroyed, The units on the ground were cut off from support and resupply, and of course the Triterran Empire's means of power projection were no more. Thus, the battle also effectively marked the end of this Empire's existence in any meaningful capacity. Lastly, though Harvey was not confirmed dead, his fate would have consequences reaching far beyond Pel's Aurora... Category:Battles Category:Space battles